U.S. patent number 10,972,951 [Application Number 16/097,840] was granted by the patent office on 2021-04-06 for anchor base station, slave cell and user equipment.
This patent grant is currently assigned to SONY CORPORATION. The grantee listed for this patent is Sony Corporation. Invention is credited to Shinichiro Tsuda, Hideji Wakabayashi, Yuxin Wei.
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United States Patent |
10,972,951 |
Wei , et al. |
April 6, 2021 |
Anchor base station, slave cell and user equipment
Abstract
A mobile telecommunications system anchor base station for a
mobile telecommunications system has at least one anchor cell and
at least one slave cell which is associated with the anchor cell.
The anchor base station has circuitry which is configured to
activate or deactivate the slave cell, based on a service
requirement received from at least one user equipment.
Inventors: |
Wei; Yuxin (Basingstoke,
GB), Wakabayashi; Hideji (Basingstoke, GB),
Tsuda; Shinichiro (Basingstoke, GB) |
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Sony Corporation |
Tokyo |
N/A |
JP |
|
|
Assignee: |
SONY CORPORATION (Tokyo,
JP)
|
Family
ID: |
1000005472520 |
Appl.
No.: |
16/097,840 |
Filed: |
March 30, 2017 |
PCT
Filed: |
March 30, 2017 |
PCT No.: |
PCT/EP2017/057626 |
371(c)(1),(2),(4) Date: |
October 31, 2018 |
PCT
Pub. No.: |
WO2017/194245 |
PCT
Pub. Date: |
November 16, 2017 |
Prior Publication Data
|
|
|
|
Document
Identifier |
Publication Date |
|
US 20190141589 A1 |
May 9, 2019 |
|
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
|
May 10, 2016 [EP] |
|
|
16168961 |
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04W
36/08 (20130101); H04W 16/32 (20130101); H04W
24/10 (20130101); H04W 24/08 (20130101); H04W
72/0453 (20130101); H04W 36/00837 (20180801); H04W
36/0088 (20130101); H04W 24/02 (20130101); H04L
5/005 (20130101); H04W 84/045 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
H04W
24/02 (20090101); H04W 36/08 (20090101); H04W
24/10 (20090101); H04W 24/08 (20090101); H04W
16/32 (20090101); H04W 36/00 (20090101); H04W
72/04 (20090101); H04L 5/00 (20060101); H04W
84/04 (20090101) |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Foreign Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2012/123616 |
|
Sep 2012 |
|
WO |
|
2013/150344 |
|
Oct 2013 |
|
WO |
|
Other References
Intel Corpporation, (UK) Ltd., "Scell activation/deactivation MAC
Control Element," R2-104027, 3GPP TSG RAN WG2 Meeting #70bis,
Stockholm, Sweden, Jun. 28-Jul. 2, 2010, pp. 1-3. cited by
applicant .
International Search Report and Written Opinion for International
Application No. PCT/EP2017/057626, dated Jul. 6, 2017. cited by
applicant.
|
Primary Examiner: Acolatse; Kodzovi
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Xsensus, LLP
Claims
The invention claimed is:
1. A mobile telecommunications system anchor base station for a
mobile telecommunications system including at least one anchor cell
and at least one slave cell being associated with the anchor cell,
the anchor base station comprising circuitry being configured to:
partially activate or deactivate the slave cell, based on a service
requirement received from at least one user equipment; activate or
deactivate a partial carrier, wherein the partial carrier is
activated or deactivated for a single user equipment or a group of
user equipments in the slave cell; and to perform handover on the
basis of a relayed handover message being transmitted to the slave
cell and being relayed by the slave cell, wherein the slave cell is
a virtual cell.
2. The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of
claim 1, wherein the service requirement is received from a group
of user equipments.
3. The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of
claim 1, wherein the service requirement includes application level
information.
4. The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of
claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to send a
one-shot activation command.
5. The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of
claim 4, wherein the circuitry is configured to send the one-shot
activation command to the slave cell or a group of user
equipments.
6. The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of
claim 1, wherein the circuitry is further configured to select a
coordinated set based on at least one of: link quality, matched
service requirement, service provider, resources availability and
interference level.
7. A slave cell being established by a slave base station and being
connected to an anchor base station in a mobile telecommunications
system, the mobile telecommunications system comprising the anchor
base station, the anchor base station being configured to
communicate with at least one user equipment and at least one
further slave cell, the at least one further slave cell being
configured to communicate with at least one user equipment and the
anchor base station, the slave cell comprising circuitry being
configured to: activate or deactivate a partial carrier, based on a
service requirement, wherein the partial carrier is activated or
deactivated for a single user equipment or a group of user
equipments in the slave cell; and to perform handover on the basis
of a relayed handover message being transmitted to the slave cell
and being relayed by the slave cell, wherein the slave cell is a
virtual cell.
8. The slave cell of claim 7, wherein the service requirement
includes application level information.
9. A user equipment being connectable to at least one anchor base
station and at least one slave cell of a mobile telecommunications
system, the mobile telecommunications system comprising the anchor
base station being configured to communicate with at least one user
equipment and at least one slave cell, the at least one slave cell
being established by a slave base station and being configured to
communicate with at least one user equipment and the anchor base
station, the user equipment comprising a circuitry being configured
to: receive a carrier segment activation command or deactivation
command, the carrier segment activation command or deactivation
command being for partial carrier resources, wherein the partial
carrier resources are activated or deactivated for a single user
equipment or a group of user equipments in the slave cell; and to
perform handover on the basis of a relayed handover message being
transmitted to the slave cell and being relayed by the slave cell,
wherein the slave cell is a virtual cell.
10. The user equipment of claim 9, wherein the circuitry is further
configured to measure and report a channel quality only on
activated resource blocks.
11. The user equipment of claim 9, wherein the circuitry is further
configured to receive a user equipment group specific reference
signal only on activated resource blocks.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a National Stage Application based on
PCT/EP2017/057626, filed 30 Mar. 2017, and claims priority to
European Patent Application No. 16168961.7 on 10 May 2016, the
entire contents of which being incorporated herein by
reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present disclosure generally pertains to an anchor base
station, a slave cell and a user equipment for a mobile
telecommunications system.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
Several generations of mobile telecommunications systems are known,
e.g. the third generation ("3G"), which is based on the
International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000;
specifications, the fourth generation ("4G"), which provides
capabilities as defined in the International Mobile
Telecommunications-Advanced Standard (IMT-Advanced Standard), and
the current fifth generation ("5G"), which is under development and
which might be put into practice in the year 2020.
The candidate for providing the requirements of 5G is the so called
Long Term Evolution ("LTE"), which is a wireless communication
technology allowing high-speed data communications for mobile
phones and data terminals and which is already used for 4G mobile
telecommunications systems.
LTE is based on the GSM/EDGE ("Global System for Mobile
Communications"/"Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution" also called
EGPRS) of the second generation ("2G") and UMTS/HSPA ("Universal
Mobile Telecommunications System"/"High Speed Packet Access") of
the third generation ("3G") network technologies.
LTE is standardized under the control of 3GPP ("3rd Generation
Partnership Project"; and there exists a successor LTE-A (LTE
Advanced) allowing higher data rates than the basic LTE and which
is also standardized under the control of 3GPP.
For the future, 3GPP plans to further develop LTE-A such that it
will be able to fulfill the technical requirements of 5G.
As the 5G system will be based on LTE or LTE-A, respectively, it is
assumed that specific requirements of the 5G technologies will,
basically, deal with features and methods which are already defined
in the LTE and LTE-A standard documentation.
5G technologies will allow a concept of a so called "virtual cell"
or "local cell" or the like. In this concept a cell is served by a
user equipment ("UE"), e.g. a mobile phone, a computer, tablet,
tablet personal computer or the like including a mobile
communication interface, or any other device which is able to
perform a mobile telecommunication via, for example, LTE(-A), such
as a hot spot device with a mobile communication interface. In
short the UE works dynamically as an intermediate node for
establishing an indirect network connection between other UEs in
the vicinity of the virtual cell or local cell and the network,
and/or as an intermediate node between UEs. A function of the
intermediate node on the UE may also be carried out by
"virtualization". A virtual cell or local cell may communicate with
UEs in unlicensed, shared licensed or licensed bands, and it
backhauls to network preferably in licensed bands.
A logical separation between control plane and user plane has been
made in accordance with introduction of the IP Multimedia System
(IMS) for LTE, and a physical separation between control plane and
user plane has been proposed as a possible solution for 5G. Since
requirements for the control plane should be basically robustness
and wide coverage so as to maintain the service continuity, a macro
or anchor base station should provide a link to the control plane.
On the other hand a key performance of the user plane is the
efficient spectrum mage in order to improve the cell capacity.
However, since the requirements of the user plane are highly
depending on specific use case or UE capability/category, a variety
of types of reception/transmission or routing methods are
considered according to the respective use case or UE
capability/category taking into account a concept for 5G such as
"network slicing".
For the 5G technologies, it is envisaged that a UE in the function
as a virtual cell should be able to take over responsibilities,
which are typically carried out, for example, in a base station, or
eNodeB (Evolved Node B) as it is referred to in LTE (the eNodeB is
the element in the evolved UTRA of LTE, the UTRA being the UMTS
Terrestrial Radio Access). Such responsibilities which are
envisaged to be performed in the LTE as a virtual cell, are, for
example, radio resource management, radio resource control ("RRC"),
connection control, etc. Hence, it is not solely relied on the
eNodeB or a small cell to relay data and to organize the local
network, but such functions are shifted to the UE functioning as a
virtual cell. The existence of such intermediate nodes of virtual
cells in the network are expected to offload signaling overhead
from the eNodeB, to allocate radio resource efficiently, etc.
However, for such requirements of future 5G technologies the
signaling features and methods as being defined so fir for LTE(-A)
might be not optimal and, thus, it is generally desirable to
improve known signaling and messaging methods.
SUMMARY
According to a first aspect, the disclosure provides a mobile
telecommunications system anchor base station for a mobile
telecommunications system including at least one anchor cell and at
least one slave cell being associated with the anchor cell, the
anchor base station comprising circuitry being configured to
activate or deactivate the slave cell, based on a service
requirement received from at least one user equipment.
According to a second aspect, the disclosure provides a slave cell
being established by a slave base station and being connected to an
anchor base station in a mobile telecommunications system, the
mobile telecommunications system comprising the anchor base
station, the anchor base station being configured to communicate
with at least one user equipment and at least one further slave
cell, the at least one further slave cell being configured to
communicate with at least one user equipment and the anchor base
station, the slave cell comprising circuitry being configured to
activate or deactivate an extant earlier, based on a service
requirement.
According to a third aspect, the disclosure provides a user
equipment being connectable to at least one anchor base station and
at least one slave cell of a mobile telecommunications system, the
mobile telecommunications system comprising the anchor base station
being configured to communicate with at least one user equipment
and at least one slave cell, the at least one slave cell being
established by a slave base station and being configured to
communicate with at least one user equipment and the anchor base
station, the user equipment comprising a circuitry being configured
to receive a carrier segment activation command or deactivation
command.
Further aspects are set forth in the dependent claims, the
following description and the drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Embodiments are explained by way of example with respect to the
accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 illustrates a radio access network with anchor and slave
base stations;
FIG. 2a illustrates a sporadic carrier;
FIG. 2b illustrates a carrier segment;
FIG. 2c illustrates a carrier segment independent from a primary
carrier;
FIG. 2d illustrates a carrier segment which is part of a primary
carrier;
FIG. 3 illustrates a method to be performed by a base station;
FIG. 4 illustrates a method to be performed by a slave cell;
FIG. 5 illustrates a method to be performed by a user equipment;
and
FIG. 6 shows a multi-purpose computer.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
Before a detailed description of the embodiments under reference of
FIG. 1 is outlined, general explanations are made.
The following description will exemplary refer to LTE (Long Term
Evolution) technology, in order to explain the embodiments of the
present disclosure. However, the skilled person will appreciate
that the present disclosure is not limited to LTE. Moreover,
although the present description generally refers to "LTE", the
skilled person will appreciate that "LTE" shall cover also more
advanced versions of LTE, such as LTE-A (LTE Advanced), LTE-B or
New Radio (known as 5G) which is not yet standardized, but under
development, etc. All those versions are referred to as "LTE" in
the following.
As mentioned in the outset, 5G technologies will allow a concept of
a so called "virtual cell" or "local cell" or the like. In this
concept a cell is served by a user equipment ("UE"), e.g. a mobile
phone, a smartphone, a computer, tablet, tablet personal computer
or the like including a mobile communication interface, or any
other device which is able to perform a mobile telecommunication
via, for example, LTE(-A), such as a hot spot device with a mobile
communication interface. In short the UE works dynamically as an
intermediate node for establishing an indirect network connection
between other UEs in the vicinity of the virtual cell or local cell
and the network, and/or as an intermediate node between UEs. A
function of the intermediate node on the UE may also be carried out
by "virtualization". A virtual cell or local cell may communicate
with UEs in unlicensed, shared licensed or licensed bands, and it
backhauls to network preferably in licensed bands.
As also mentioned in the outset, for the 5G technologies it is
envisaged that a UE in the function as a virtual cell or
intermediate node should be able to take over responsibilities,
which are normally executed in a base station (eNodeB), e.g. radio
resource management, radio resource control (RRC), connection
control, etc., instead of solely relying on an eNodeB or small
cell. The UE in the function as a virtual cell or intermediate may
not only relay data but may also organize the local network. The
existence of such intermediate nodes in the network may help to
offload signaling overhead from the eNodeB, to allocate radio
resource efficiently, etc.
In 5G discussions, a user or UE centric approach is under
discussion, which focusses on the user or UE performance
improvement and not on the conventional cell centric architecture.
In a user centric architecture, multi-connectivity may be provided
for each user, in order to "track" the user and in order to fulfil
user demands independent from time and location, e.g. anytime and
anywhere.
With the usage of a virtual cell or intermediate node more dynamic
and efficient user centric operations for end users may be
possible. Hence, in the present disclosure, user or UE centric
operations with a virtual cell or intermediate node are
discussed.
When user centric operations are supported in LTE, the following
issues or challenges may be addressed:
A first issue may be, how a proactive activation/deactivation of an
intermediate node, such as a virtual cell, may be achieved in an
on-demand manner and which criteria may be adopted to perform the
activation/deactivation operation.
A second issue may be, how a coordinated set for each user may be
coordinated in order to perform a user-specific coordinated set and
the uplink and downlink may be decoupled from each other in order
to establish different coordinated sets for uplink and downlink of
each user, especially in cases where the uplink and downlink
performance differs (to a larger extent.
A third issue may be, how interferences between virtual cells or
intermediate nodes as well as between access link and backhaul link
may be coordinated.
The existence of a virtual cell may support in some embodiments,
more dynamic and efficient user centric operations in the
network.
Consequently, some embodiments pertain to a mobile
telecommunications system anchor base station for a mobile
telecommunications system. The mobile telecommunications system may
be based on the principles of the LTE technology, as mentioned
above. The mobile telecommunications system includes at least one
anchor cell, being established e.g. by the anchor base station, and
at least one slave cell being associated with the anchor cell and
being established, for example, by a slave base station. As
mentioned herein, the anchor cell may be a macro cell or the like.
The slave cell may be a small cell, local cell, virtual cell or the
like, which is established by a slave base station, e.g. an
intermediate node or the like, which may be implemented on the
basis of a UE.
The anchor base station can be based on the known eNodeB of LTE, as
one example. The anchor base station comprises circuitry being
configured to activate or deactivate the slave cell, based on a
service requirement received from at least one user equipment.
Hence, the slave cell can be selectively activated or
deactivated.
The circuitry may be configured to communicate with at least one
user equipment, at least one slave base station and/or with at
least one slave cell, and/or at least one virtual cell, as
described herein.
As mentioned, the user equipment may be, for example, a mobile
phone, smartphone, a computer, tablet, tablet personal computer or
the like including a mobile communication interface, or any other
device which is able to perform a mobile telecommunication via, for
example, LTE, such as a hot spot device with a mobile communication
interface, etc.
The service requirement may be received from a single UE or a group
of UEs, such that the slave cell can be selectively activated or
deactivated for a single UE or a group of UEs.
The service requirement may include application level information.
Hence, the slave cell may be activated for a specific service
requirement which may be defined in or determined on the basis of
the application level information received from the single UE or
from the group of UEs.
The circuitry may be further configured to send a one-shot
activation command. Thereby, a fast and simple activation of
respective resources, e.g. carriers, is possible in some
embodiments. The circuitry may be configured to send the one-shot
activation command to the slave cell or a group of UEs.
The circuitry may be further configured to activate or deactivate
an extant carrier. The extant carrier may be, for example, a
sporadic carrier or carrier segment. The extant carrier may be a
carrier segment which is left over, e.g. since it is not-used or
unallocated, either static or temporarily.
The extant carrier may be activated or deactivated by the circuitry
for a single UE or a group of UEs in the slave cell. Thereby,
unused resources can be selectively used for a single UE or a group
of UEs.
The circuitry may be further configured to select a coordinated set
based on at least one of link quality, matched service requirement,
service provider, resources availability and interference level.
Thereby, an optimized combination of anchor base stations, slave
base stations, etc. may be selected.
The circuitry may be further configured to perform handover on the
basis of a relayed handover message being transmitted to the slave
cell and being relayed by the slave cell.
Some embodiments pertain to a slave cell (slave base station). The
slave cell is established by a slave base station and it is
connected to an anchor base station in a mobile telecommunications
system, such as discussed above and herein. The mobile
telecommunications system comprises the anchor base station,
wherein the anchor base station is configured to communicate with
at least one LTE and at least one further slave cell. The at least
one further slave cell is configured to communicate with at least
one UE and the anchor base station. The slave cell comprises
circuitry, which is configured to activate or deactivate an extant
carrier, based on a service requirement, as already discussed
above.
The service requirement may include application level information,
as discussed above.
The extant carrier may be activated or deactivated for a single UE
or for a group of UEs, as discussed above.
The extant carrier may include a sporadic carrier and/or a carrier
segment, as discussed above.
The activated carrier segment may be located within a primary
carrier. Thereby, a carrier segment of the primary carrier, which
is not used, can be allocated to a single UE of group of UEs. The
activated carrier segment may be associated with a primary carrier.
For example, the primary carrier may have the control over the
carrier segment.
The circuitry may be further configured to send a reference signal
on activated resource blocks to a specific UE or a group of UEs.
This reference signal may be sent with a pre defined periodicity.
The circuitry may be further configured to send a measurement
configuration on activated resource blocks to a specific user
equipment or a group of user equipments. The activated resource
blocks may be associated with a primary carrier or may be located
within a primary carrier or the activated resource blocks may be
associated with an extant carrier, e.g. a sporadic carrier and/or a
carrier segment. The circuitry may be further configured to perform
a control plane handover. The circuitry may be further configured
to relay a relay handover message received from the anchor base
station. The circuitry may be further configured to select another
slave cell for handover on the basis of a measurement report
received from a user equipment.
Some embodiments, pertain to a user equipment being connectable to
at least one anchor base station and at least one slave cell of a
mobile telecommunications system, as described herein and in
particular as described above. As mentioned, the user equipment may
be, for example, a mobile phone, smartphone, a computer, tablet,
tablet personal computer or the like including a mobile
communication interface, or any other device which is able to
perform a mobile telecommunication via, for example, LTE, such as a
hot spot device with a mobile communication interface, etc. The
mobile telecommunications system comprises the anchor base station
which is configured to communicate with at least one UE and at
least one slave cell. The at least one slave cell is established by
a slave base station and is configured to communicate with at least
one UE and the anchor base station. The UE comprises a circuitry
which is configured to receive a carrier segment activation command
or deactivation command, e.g. sent from the anchor and/or slave
base station. Hence, the carrier segment activation command or the
carrier segment deactivation command may be received from the slave
cell or the anchor base station.
The circuitry may be further configured to measure and report a
channel quality only on activated resource blocks. Thereby,
signaling can be reduced, since it is only reported on activated
resource blocks.
The circuitry may be further configured to receive a UE group
specific reference signal only on activated resource blocks.
Thereby, the UE may save power, since it is only required to
receive the reference signal on the activated resource blocks.
Although herein and in the following features are described which
are to be performed by a circuitry, the same features can be part
of a method, which can be performed, for example, by a circuitry,
such as the circuitry of the anchor base station, the circuitry of
a slave base station (see description further below), the circuitry
of a virtual or slave cell (see further below), and/or the
circuitry of a user equipment (see further below).
The following description is divided into three sections for
discussing embodiments of the present disclosure.
Returning back to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a RAN (Radio Access
Network) 1, wherein in this case two (macro) cells 2a and 2b are
illustrated which are both served and established by a base station
3a and 3b, respectively. The base stations 3a and 3b are basically
an eNodeB type base station except for the principles described
herein and they are an anchor base station as described herein and,
consequently, the cells 2a and 2b are anchor cells in the sense as
described herein.
A user 4, i.e. a UE 4, is illustrated which travels around and
starts in the coverage of the cell 2a on the left side of FIG. 1
and ends in the cell 2b of the right side of FIG. 1.
During this travel and depending on its position, the UE 4
communicates with different entities, such as a hot spot 5a in the
left cell 2a, establishing a small cell, and another UE 6a, which
is an intermediate node in the sense as described herein and which
establishes a virtual cell (also described as a slave cell herein).
The UE 4 can directly communicate with the base station 3a or it
can communicate indirectly over the UE 6a, which serves as an
intermediate node, with the base station 3a. In a region 7, where
the left cell 2a and the right cell 2b overlap, the UE 4
communicates with a further hot spot 5b of the left cell 2a and
simultaneously with a UE 6b of the right cell 2b serving as an
intermediate node. In its last right position as illustrated in
FIG. 1, the UE 4 communicates with a hot spot 5c, communicates
directly with the base station 3b, and communicates also over the
intermediate node UE 6b establishing a virtual cell (or slave cell)
with the base station 3a.
In the following, embodiments of the disclosure will be discussed
which address the above-mentioned issues which arise when the
discussed traveling of the UE takes place.
A first section of the following description pertains to different
purposes and different levels of the activation and deactivation of
a slave cell, e.g. virtual cell. A second section pertains to the
application level transmission/reception coordinated set for the
UE, wherein it is further distinguished between uplink and
downlink. A third section pertains to solutions to tackle the UE
mobility in user-centric operations.
In the following description, embodiments will be described which
pertain to a virtual cell (UE) as an example of a slave cell (slave
base station), without limiting the present disclosure to virtual
cells, and which pertain to an eNodeB as an anchor base station,
without limiting the present disclosure to an eNodeB as an anchor
base station. Of course, the description of the virtual cell
pertains also to the slave base station, e.g. an intermediate node
or UE, which established the virtual cell.
First Section--User Centric Slave (Virtual) Cell
Activation/Deactivation
The slave cell (e.g. small cell, local cell, pico cell, virtual
cell), for example, established by the UE 6a or 6b, could be
triggered for a group of UEs or for a single UE, such as UE 4,
depending on different scenarios.
First Scenario
In a first scenario the slave cell is activated for a group of UEs.
The group of UEs may be defined by different criteria. For example,
the UEs which belong to the same hot spot and which may lack enough
radio resources may form a group of UEs. Also UEs having an
identical or similar application content demand may form a group of
UEs. Furthermore, UEs having identical or similar service
requirements may form a group of UEs.
In order to implement such user group/application level activation,
the UEs may send information being representative of their service
requirements, such as the application level information e.g.
application type, application content identifier, QoS requirements,
application duration, UE priority, etc. This information being
representative of their service requirements may be sent, for
example, in the discovery message on a PC5 link or in a scheduling
request on the Uu link, such that it can be received by a base
station (e.g. an anchor base station) or received by a slave base
station.
As generally known, the PC5 link is a link between two UEs and the
Uu link is a link between a UE and the E-UTRAN (evolved UMTS
Terrestrial Radio Access).
The virtual cell (slave base station) will gather such information
and identify the necessity (e.g. the amount of UEs that are beyond
a certain threshold, the UEs which are listed as high priority) to
trigger themselves to participate in a group of UEs.
In alternative embodiments, the eNodeB will collect such
information sent from the UEs and trigger some virtual cells for a
group of UEs.
As another example, it is possible that the virtual cell will
adjust the resource allocations or switch/handover of a group of
UEs to another virtual cell after its activation. The virtual cell
may be activated by default in the hot spot area. But certain
groups of UEs may have special requirements e.g. on the provided
services. After collecting such information, the virtual cell will
adjust the resource allocations for such groups of UEs and/or will
switch/handover groups of UEs to a new virtual cell/small cell
which can fulfil their requirements.
Second Scenario
In a second scenario, a virtual cell is activated for a single UE,
such as UE 4 of FIG. 1. In other words, in such embodiments, it is
allowed to trigger a virtual cell only for a single UE. At least
two methods are applicable in the embodiments.
According to a first method, the virtual cell is in a sleep state,
but it will broadcast system information which contains information
about provided services or the virtual cell will send a discovery
message that contains respective information about provided
services. After receipt of such an information, the UE (in idle
state or connected state within the virtual cell) will decide
whether to send an activation request message to the virtual cell
or not.
According to a second method, the UE will send a discovery message
that contains the service requirement, for example, QoS related
information. The virtual cell which receives the message will
decide to send a respective reply message or not. As an
alternative, the eNodeB may receive such information and may
designate a respective virtual cell to send a reply message to the
UE.
In the activation/deactivation operation in the general known
carrier aggregation, the operation is typical carrier-wise, which
means that the whole carrier resources will be triggered without
considering the real application scenarios.
For 5G and, thus, also in some embodiments, the resources which are
activated/de-activated may differ.
In the following, different scenarios which may be provided in some
embodiments are discussed.
In a first scenario, the whole carrier is activated (or
deactivated). In this case, the whole carrier resources of a
virtual cell will be triggered. This may apply, for example, for
cases where the virtual cell has to provide one or more services
for a larger group of users, e.g. in the hot spot, or where the
virtual cell has to provide a high volume data transmission. Both
cases, i.e. the large group of users (UEs) and the high volume data
transmission may be decided on the basis of a respective threshold
value, which may be defined in advance, may be calculated, etc. In
contrast to the general known activation of the operation in
carrier aggregation, the virtual cell may deploy several
(different) carriers including mmWave, conventional cellular
carrier in a lower band, unlicensed carriers, etc. The virtual cell
may decide which carriers are to be activated on the basis, for
example, of an information exchange with the serving eNodeB and/or
a neighboring eNodeB as well as among neighboring virtual cells,
the user (UE) and/or service characteristics, etc. The virtual cell
may have the responsibility to decide how to allocate the
respective resources to each user (UE).
For example, if the user (UE) density is large and/or is
concentrated in a small area, and/or the data volume is quite
large, the virtual cell may decide to activate an mmWave
carrier.
As another example, the virtual cell may decide to activate an
unlicensed carrier, if the service is sporadic, but the user (LIE)
number is relatively large.
In a second scenario, only partial resources are activated, i.e.
only a part of the resource of the virtual cell will be activated
for a certain group of UEs or a single UE. The resources, which are
not activated, i.e. which are in a de-activated state, will remain
in "sleep" state, and, thus will not cause interferences with other
UEs. In contrast to normal DRX (discontinuous reception), where the
carrier is typically not changed, in the second scenario, the
sporadic carrier may change. The "sleep mode" of the de-activated
resources may be notified to the UE(s). Then, for example, on the
deactivated resources, reference signals may be transmitted with
reduced (pre-defined) periodicity compared to activated resources,
or alternatively, no reference signals are transmitted on the
deactivated resources. The UEs may skip the monitoring of the
reference signal for the de-activated resources, in order to reduce
energy consumption. In some embodiments, the reference signal will
be transmitted in an on-demand manner. This can be done, as
mentioned above, also in a manner that the reference signal is only
transmitted in the activated resources on demand and/or that the
reference signal is transmitted with reduced periodicity on the
de-activated resources on demand.
The activation criteria for the resources may be traffic volume,
coverage, interference, QoS, and/or group operation. Moreover, in
some embodiments, there is a need to activate additional resources
only for a certain group of UEs with special service requirements
or the like. After activation of the additional resources, the
power efficiency (e.g. throughput per Joule) and/or the spectrum
efficiency (e.g. throughput per Hz) may be improved.
Although the aim of the partial resource activation is to allocate
the partially activated resources to the end user (UE), the
activation procedure of the partial resources is always performed
before the dynamic scheduling. Hence, in some embodiments, the
general procedure is configuration.fwdarw.activation.fwdarw.dynamic
scheduling (in this order).
After the configuration, the UE may receive system information from
the (virtual) cell but it cannot receive control data or
transmit/receive data from the cell. There is also no PMI
(Pre-coding Matrix Indicator), CQI (Channel Quality Indicator), RI
(Rank Indicator) reporting (no CSI (Channel Status information)
reporting).
After the activation, the UE could receive control data and
transmit/receive data from the (virtual) cell. The CSI reporting
may also be included.
Consequently, in some embodiments, only after a successful
activation of (a part of) the resources, the dynamic scheduling
will be performed. Dining the dynamic scheduling, it will be
decided, which resource blocks will be allocated and to which UE
they will be allocated.
In the known release earner aggregation, the configuration and/or
activation of the resources is UE specific. Hence, in known
systems, once the carrier is activated, the UE has to do the
measurement and/or CSI reporting on the whole carrier.
In contrast to this, in some embodiments, for the partial resource
activation the characteristics may be summarized and may be
implemented in some embodiments, as discussed below:
First, the control data and reference signal are transmitted only
on the limited resources (e.g. the activated resources). For the
UE(s) which receive the partial activation command, there will be
no or only a reference signal having, e.g. a reduced periodicity,
on the deactivated resources.
In the following, two examples are given on the basis of which
criteria it may be decided which resources should be activated for
a certain UE.
In a first example, the whole carrier will be activated, but the UE
will report CSIs, based on measurements of the resources. Then,
respective partial resources will be activated for certain UEs
based on the measurements.
In a second example, the resources will be activated randomly for
certain groups of UEs. As long as there is no measurement report
which indicates bad link qualities on the activated resources, the
activation of the respective activated resources will be kept. If
from measurement reports it turns out that the channel quality is
had, a re-allocation will be performed, which then can be made, for
example, random again. The resources for which a bad channel
quality was determined, may not participate in the following random
resource allocation.
Second, the UE(s) which receive the partial resource activation
command may only perform measurements and CSI reporting on the
activated resources.
Third, the activation/deactivation command along with which
resources should be activated/deactivated may be
semi-static/dynamic, e.g. through MAC CE or PHY layer signaling or
by RRC signaling.
Fourth, the amount of activated resources may depend on, for
example, service request, UE group size, etc.
Fifth, the partial resources activation may be user (UE)/user (UE)
group specific. In such embodiments, a group specific reference
signaling configuration is provided and this configuration is
transparent to other groups. As an alternative, the different
users/user groups may share the same set of resources with
different sets of reference signals (e.g. based non-orthogonal
multiplexing).
Summarizing, with this partial resources activation, the UE's load
to measure the channel and to give respective feedback will be
further decreased and, moreover, an on-demand reference signaling
and control signaling may be realized on the basis of it.
In the following, under reference of FIGS. 2a-d, three embodiments
for different kinds of partial resources are discussed. Such
partial resources and their associated partial carriers are also
referred to as extant carriers, since, typically, in some
embodiments, these are carriers which are not used, and, thus,
"extant" (or left over).
In FIGS. 2a and 2b a sporadic carrier or carrier segment solution
as example of extant carriers are illustrated which work with a
primary carrier. Sporadic carrier refers in some embodiments to
carriers which are sporadically available, while carrier segments
refers in some embodiments more generally to segments of carriers
which are available, either temporarily or static.
The virtual cell may configure several sporadic carriers or carrier
segments or resource blocks. These carriers contain only limited
bandwidth, e.g. one or two RBs, and may not be suitable for the
macro/small cell to support a large number of users (UEs).
But, for a virtual cell which only supports a limited (small)
number of users (UEs), sporadic carriers or carrier segments may be
usable and may be easily deployable.
As can be taken from FIG. 2a, the frequency spectrum allocated by
regulators to network operators, e.g. "Operator A" and "Operator
B", may have unused band segments (see "sporadic carrier" in FIG.
2a). Such carrier segments can be (temporarily) allocated to a
virtual cell such that the virtual cell can use it. As another
example, such sporadic carriers and/or resource blocks are
available in cases where the eNodeB divides the whole (available)
spectrum into resource pools and between these resource pools, some
leftover (extant) resource blocks exist. In some embodiments, even
the resource pool can be treated as sporadic carriers or sporadic
resource blocks.
In the embodiment of FIG. 2b, it is illustrated that the carrier
segment can be used as working together with a primary carrier,
which then has the control function. The primary carrier, which
typically carries the control signaling, e.g. resource allocation,
RRC, measurement configuration, feedback configuration, etc., is
activated together or before the activation of a carrier segment.
The node which configures and/or activates the primary carrier may
differ from the node which configures and/or activates the carrier
segment. For instance, the primary carrier is configured and/or
activated by the macro eNodeB (anchor base station), whereas the
carrier segment is configured and/or activated in the virtual cell
(e.g. by the slave base station). In other embodiments, the primary
carrier and the carrier segment are configured and/or activated in
the virtual cell (e.g. by the slave base station). The earner
segment can be treated as an additional resource for data
transmission.
In FIG. 2c, an embodiment is illustrated, where the carrier segment
works independent from the primary carrier.
The carrier segment may be activated with the signaling on the
primary carrier or by a signaling independent from the primary
carrier. The carrier segment in this embodiment carries the control
signaling by itself, and, thus, does not need to rely on the
primary carrier. The control signaling and reference signaling may
be implemented in an on-demand manner.
FIG. 2d illustrates an embodiment where resources within a primary
carrier are used as a carrier segment.
As the activated resources (carrier segment) are located within the
primary carrier they can only be activated by the primary carrier
itself. The remaining resources could be deactivated or activated
for other UEs/user groups. There will be a separate control
signaling and reference signaling for the remaining resources.
In order to enhance the understanding of the difference between the
carrier segment (extant carrier) and the known carrier aggregation
which allocates carriers to users for increasing the data
throughput, the following table summarizes the differences:
TABLE-US-00001 Items Sub-items Carrier segment Carrier aggregation
Reasons of activa- Reason of activation The necessity for Large
data volume tion/deactivation virtual cell (VC) handling for a
specific UE Criteria of activa- Traffic volume, Downlink buffer in
tion/deactivation coverage, interference, the eNodeB, buffer QoS,
group operation, status report from UE etc. Resource activa- Unit
of activa- VC specific UE specific tion/deactivation
tion/deactivation Size of activa- Suitable for VC e.g. 20 MHz
suitable tion/deactivation for cell resource Effective area/range
VCs in the cell The entire cell/UEs of control (and UEs in the VC)
in the entire cell) Unit of resource Carrier segment Component
carrier(s) control (multiple resource blocks which are suitable for
VC) Sporadic carriers Duration of resource Fast signaling of Fast
signaling of allocation activate/deactivate or activate/deactivate
one-shot What the resource can For other VCs in the For another UE
in the be reused for during cell cell deactivation Resource
scheduling RBs allocation during Resource pool for UE specific
scheduling during activation activation group or UE specific from
eNodeB scheduling from VC Scheduling signaling 5G control signaling
SCell PDCCH or or primary cell PCell PDCCH (cross- carrier
scheduling) Operation during Cell-specific reference Not
transmitted during Always transmitted activation signals
deactivation regardless of activation CQI/CSI Not transmitted
during Not transmitted during activation activation
In the following three different types of embodiments are discussed
of how to allocate the partial resources to a single UE or a group
of UEs.
According to a first type of embodiment for allocation of partial
resources, in the case of the virtual cell being allocated with
several resource pools, for a certain group of UEs or single UE,
only one resource pool will be allocated to the end users. The
decision is made based on interference information, e.g.
interference level indication on the resource blocks exchanged with
the serving eNodeB, a neighbor eNodeB and/or with a neighbor
virtual cell.
According to a second type of embodiment for allocation of partial
resources, only certain resource blocks or subframes will be
provided to users. This applies to the licensed and unlicensed
bands. Especially for the unlicensed bands, for the resources that
are not occupied by other UEs (listen before talk, LBT), the
virtual cell will allocate the resource blocks opportunistically to
the end users. The detection of occupied resources could be
coordinated by the serving eNodeB, the virtual cell and/or the
end-users together for achieving accurate results.
According to a third type of embodiment for allocation of partial
resources, the eNodeB sends a so-called one-shot activation to the
virtual cell or to the UEs within the virtual cell. The resource
pool(s) is configured to the UEs by the virtual cell. A duplicated
allocation of resource pool(s) is allowed among virtual cells under
the same cell served by an eNodeB. The eNodeB sends control
signaling, e.g. PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel)/EPDCCH
(enhanced PDCCH) with common search space or virtual cell-specific
search space, to the UE for informing which UE for which virtual
cell) is allowed to send data. In some embodiments, this is a kind
of time-division scheduling, but the units of control are the
virtual cells rather than individual UEs. In some embodiments, this
approach is suitable for small traffic where a large number of
virtual cells is involved.
The detail of the whole process including one-shot activation is as
follow's:
1. Resource pool configuration
1.1. eNodeB allocates the resource pool(s) to a virtual cell.
1.2. The virtual cell configures the resource pool(s) to UEs under
it (not activated yet).
1.3. Likewise, eNodeB allocates the same resource pool(s) to
another virtual cell.
1.4. The virtual cell configures the resource pool(s) to UEs under
it (not activated yet).
2. Scheduling Request for buffer status;
2.1. For uplink UE sends the scheduling request to virtual cell for
uplink data.
2.2. The virtual cell sends the scheduling request to the
eNodeB.
2.3. For downlink: As an alternative for 2.2, the eNodeB is aware
of arrival of data for downlink.
3. One-shot activation.
3.1. Direct: eNodeB directly sends the grant to UEs under the
virtual cell with PDCCH/EPDCCH.
3.2. Or as an alternative to 3.1, indirect via the virtual cell:
eNodeB sends the grant to the virtual cell and the virtual cell
sends the grant to UEs under it.
The grant information may include: Designated virtual cell (ID)
Duration of activation (optional if configurable) Designated
resource pool (optional if more than one resource pool has been
configured to VC)
The signaling of control information may use: Check the common
search space and read PDSCH (Physical Download Shared Channel)
which could carry the grant information (all the UEs in the cell
must read PDSCH). Or Virtual cell-specific search space (or virtual
cell-specific RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identity)) and read
PDSCH which could carry the grant information (the UEs under the
virtual cell need to read PDSCH). 4. Data transmission 4.1. UE (or
virtual cell) sends the data to virtual cell (or UE) during the
period of grant. 5. Deactivation 5.1. After the expiry of above
grant duration, the resource is automatically deactivated.
The resource concept could be applied to a wider range in some
embodiments, e.g. transmission power, antenna configuration
etc.
Second Section--Coordinated Set Selection
The coordinated set is composed by the transmission/reception nodes
(e.g. eNodeB, virtual cell, small cell) to send/receive data
to/from the UE.
The coordinated set selection may be based on the following
criteria:
First, it may be based on the link quality. Each UE will measure
the reference signal quality e.g. RSRP (Reference Signal Received
Power)/RSRQ (Reference Signal Received Quality), from the eNodeB
and the virtual cell (if available). The UE may also measure the
discovery signal quality and/or the synchronization signal quality
of the PC5 link with the virtual cell. Then, the UE will feed back
the link quality together with the identifier of potential
transmission points to the eNodeB and/or to the virtual cell. The
link quality includes both the access and backhaul link of the
virtual cell. In the case of an extant carrier, in particular of a
sporadic carrier, there may be no indication of the link quality
present before its activation. After the extant carrier is
activated, there will be a measurement report about the link
quality of the downlink and the eNodeB may measure the link quality
of the uplink.
Second, it may be based on matched service requirements and the
service provider. Only the transmission node which is able to
provide the guaranteed service quality e.g. QoS, will be selected
as one of the transmission points. The application level
information will be exchanged in the activation stage. It is
possible that for different applications of one UE, the different
coordinated sets will be selected. Furthermore, by considering the
different priorities of each service, in the case of resource
scarcity, the better transmission node, e.g. with sufficient good
link quality, with less load, with more matched resources for the
demanding services, or the like, will be selected for the
services.
Third, it may be based on resources availability and interference
level. The transmission point with available resources and which
will fulfil the service requirements will be selected. At the same
time, a transmission node which is mutually exclusive because of
resource collision, e.g. causes heavy interferences to the on-going
communication of other UEs, will not be selected in the coordinated
set. The interference information and/or resources usage
information of each resource block will be exchanged
periodically/dynamically or on demand of other transmission
nodes.
By considering the above discussed criteria, for example, together
with a weighted average, multiple transmission points can be
selected for each UE. In some embodiments, a central node is
defined which makes such decisions, e.g. the serving eNodeB, while
in other embodiments the decision is made on the basis of the
coordination of each of the participating nodes. The notification
of the coordinated set could be sent to the UE(s) in a central or
distributed manner. In embodiments using the central approach, the
eNodeB will notify the UE about all selected transmission point
identifiers together with the specific resource allocation and/or
supported application (in the case that different applications will
have different coordinated sets).
For the downlink and uplink data, it is possible that different
coordinated sets will be applied in some embodiments. For the
downlink, the LIE measures the link quality of the reference signal
of every potential transmission point and feedbacks the measurement
report. For the uplink, the virtual cell measures the link quality
of the discovery signal, and together with the criteria listed
above, the virtual cell sends the corresponding information to a
central node, e.g. the serving eNodeB, to make the decision or, as
mentioned above, the decision about the coordinated set for the UE
uplink data transmission is made based on the coordination of each
of the receiving nodes. As an example, the eNodeB may measure the
link quality of the reference signal from the UE (if available) to
make the decision of coordinated set for uplink.
Third Section--UE Mobility in User-Centric Operation
As the UE and the virtual cell may be mobile, as also discussed for
FIG. 1 above, the multi-connectivity of UE illustrated in FIG. 1
may help to reduce the handover signaling and/or handover
failures.
In the following three different types of embodiments are
discussed.
A first type of embodiments pertains to the control/user plane
separation. A logical separation between control plane and user
plane has been made in accordance with introduction of the IP
Multimedia System (IMS; for LTE, and a physical separation between
control plane and user plane has been proposed as a possible
solution for 5G. This separation into control plane cell and user
plane cell may be made in a way, for example, that user data are
handled over the user plane and signaling is handled over the
control plane cell. The serving macro eNodeB (anchor base station)
will be responsible for the handover, all the other small cells
and/or virtual cells (slave base stations) will be responsible for
the user plane data transmission. Hence, in this scenario, there is
no handover within the control plane area. For the handover among
the control plane area, the virtual cell may support a handover.
For example, if two virtual cells are located within the coverage
of adjacent cells, then with the assistance of these two virtual
cells, UE(s) that is moving from one cell to the adjacent cell
could make a handover by these two virtual cells.
A second type of embodiments pertains to a virtual cell relayed
handover message. A drawback of control/user plane separation may
be the so-called single node failure problem. Especially in a cell
edge area, the receiving quality may be not sufficient or not
satisfying. In some scenarios, a virtual cell may be located always
near or neighboring to the serving eNodeB and the end user (UE).
Then the handover command is transmitted from the serving eNodeB to
the aid user through the virtual cell, which, in some embodiments,
compensates a bad direct link quality between the eNodeB and the
UE. In the relayed handover message, all the information is
provided by the serving eNodeB, while the virtual cell only relays
the message. The relayed messages can be further extended to other
control signaling e.g. RRC signaling.
A third type of embodiments pertains to a virtual cell
assisted/controlled handover. In the case that the virtual cell
finds a suitable candidate for the UE and coordinates with a
potential target virtual cell, the source virtual cell may trigger
the handover command to the UE instead of the serving eNodeB. After
receiving the measurement report from UE, the source virtual cell
will make the handover decision and send the handover request to
the target virtual cell. Once the target virtual cell accepts the
handover request, it trill send an acknowledgement to the source
virtual cell. Then the source virtual cell will send a handover
command to UE. Then, as the UE may be in a multi-connectivity
situation, where the UE may have several connections, for example,
with a serving eNodeB, small cells or other virtual cells, the
service continuity could be maintained.
In the following, a method 20 is discussed under reference of FIG.
3, which may be performed, in particular, by the circuitry of the
anchor base station as described herein.
At 21, the slave cell is activated or deactivated, based on a
service requirement received from at least one UE, as discussed
above. The service requirement may be received from a single UE or
from a group of UEs. As also discussed above, the service
requirement may include application level information.
At 22, a one-shot activation command is sent for activation and
allocation of resources to a UE, as discussed above. The one-shot
activation command may be sent to the slave cell or a group of
UEs.
At 23, an extant carrier is activated/deactivated, as discussed
above. The extant carrier is activated or deactivated for a single
UE or a group of UEs in the slave cell. The extant carrier may
include a sporadic carrier and/or a carrier segment.
At 24, a coordinated set is selected based on at least one of link
quality, matched service requirement, service provider, resources
availability and interference level.
At 25, handover is performed on the basis of a relayed handover
message being transmitted to the slave cell and being relayed by
the slave cell.
The order of features 21-25 may be different in different
embodiments and can be chosen freely. Moreover, other embodiments
of the method may only include a part of the features 21-25.
In the following, a method 30 is discussed under reference of FIG.
4, which may be performed, in particular, by the circuitry of the
slave cell or slave base station as described herein.
At 31, an extant carrier is activated or deactivated, based on a
service requirement, as discussed above. The service requirement
may include application level information. The extant carrier is
activated or deactivated for a single UE or for a group of UEs, as
discussed above. The extant carrier may include a sporadic carrier
and/or a carrier segment, as discussed above. The activated carrier
segment may be located within a primary carrier and it may be
associated with a primary carrier, for example, it may be under the
control of the primary carrier, as discussed above. As discussed
above, the carrier segment may also be independent from the primary
carrier.
At 32, a reference signal is sent on activated resource blocks to a
specific UE or a group of UEs, as discussed above, wherein the
reference signal may be sent with a pre-defined periodicity. As
discussed above, the activated resource blocks are associated with
a primary carrier or located within a primary carrier.
At 33, a measurement configuration is sent on activated resource
blocks to a specific user equipment or a group of user
equipments.
At 34, a handover is performed. As discussed, this may include a
control plane handover, it may include to relay a relay handover
message received from the anchor base station, and/or it may
include to select another slave cell for handover on the basis of a
measurement report received from a user equipment.
The order of features 31-32 may be different in different
embodiments and can be chosen freely. Moreover, other embodiments
of the method may only include a part of the features 31-32.
In the following, a method 40 is discussed under reference of FIG.
5, which may be performed, in particular, by the circuitry of a UE
as described herein.
At 41, a carrier segment activation command or deactivation command
is received, as discussed above. The carrier segment activation
command or the carrier segment deactivation command is received
from the slave cell or the anchor base station, as discussed
above.
At 42, a channel quality is measured and reported only on activated
resource blocks, as discussed above.
At 43, a reference signal is only received on activated resource
blocks, wherein the reference signal is specific for a group of
UEs.
The order of features 41-43 may be different in different
embodiments and can be chosen freely. Moreover, other embodiments
of the method may only include a part of the features 41-43.
In the following, an embodiment of a general purpose computer 90 is
described under reference of FIG. 6. The computer 90 can be such
implemented that it can basically function as any type of (anchor,
slave, etc.) base station, virtual/slave cell or user equipment as
described herein. The computer has components 91 to 100, which can
form a circuitry, such as anyone of the circuitries of the (anchor,
slave) base station, virtual cell, slave cell, and user equipment,
as described herein.
Embodiments which use software, firmware, programs or the like for
performing the methods as described herein can be installed on
computer 90, which is then configured to be suitable for the
concrete embodiment.
The computer 90 has a CPU 91 (Central Processing Unit), which can
execute various types of procedures and methods as described
herein, for example, in accordance with programs stored in a
read-only memory (ROM) 92, stored in a storage 97 and loaded into a
random access memory (RAM) 93, stored on a medium 100 which can be
inserted in a respective drive 99, etc.
The CPU 91, the ROM 92 and the RAM 93 are connected with a bus 101,
which, in turn is connected to an input/output interface 94. The
number of CPUs, memories and storages is only exemplary, and the
skilled person will appreciate that the computer 90 can be adapted
and configured accordingly for meeting specific requirements which
arise, when it functions as a base station, virtual cell, and user
equipment.
At the input/output interface 94 several components are connected:
an input 95, an output 96, the storage 97, a communication
interface 98 and the drive 99 into which a medium 100 (compact
disc, digital video disc, compact flash memory, or the like) can be
inserted.
The input 95 can be a pointer device (mouse, graphic table, or the
like), a keyboard, a microphone, a camera, a touchscreen, etc.
The output 96 can have a display (liquid crystal display, cathode
ray tube display, light emittance diode display, etc.),
loudspeakers, etc.
The storage 97 can have a hard disk, a solid state drive and the
like.
The communication interface 98 can be adapted to communicate, for
example, via a local area network (LAN), wireless local area
network (WLAN), mobile telecommunications system (GSM, UMTS, LTE,
etc.), Bluetooth, infrared, etc.
It should be noted that the description above only pertains to an
example configuration of computer 90. Alternative configurations
may be implemented with additional or other sensors, storage
devices, interfaces or the like. For example, the communication
interface 98 may support other radio access technologies than the
mentioned UMTS and LTE.
When the computer 90 functions as a base station the communication
interface 98 can further have a respective air interface (providing
e.g. E-UTRA protocols OFDMA (downlink) and SC-FDMA (uplink)) and
network interfaces (implementing for example protocols such as
S1-AP, GTP-U, S1-MME, X2-AP, or the like). The present disclosure
is not limited to any particularities of such protocols.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure focus on the user
centric operation in the network with virtual cells or, more
generally, with slave cells. With some of the embodiments proposed
herein, the user perceived quality of services may be improved. The
whole network could provide more dynamic and efficient services to
the end users, in some embodiments.
The methods as described herein are also implemented in some
embodiments as a computer program causing a computer and/or a
processor and/or a circuitry to perform the method, when being
carried out on the computer and/or processor and/or the circuitry.
In some embodiments, also a non-transitory computer-readable
recording medium is provided that stores therein a computer program
product, which, when executed by a processor, such as the processor
described above, causes the methods described herein to be
performed.
It should be recognized that the embodiments describe methods with
an exemplary ordering of method features and an exemplary number of
method features. The specific ordering of method features is
however given for illustrative purposes only and should not be
construed as binding. Such changes of the ordering of method
features are apparent to the skilled person.
In so far as the embodiments of the disclosure described above are
implemented, at least in part, using a software-controlled data
processing apparatus, such as computer 90 above, it will be
appreciated that a computer program providing such software control
and a transmission, storage or other medium by which such a
computer program is provided are envisaged as aspects of the
present disclosure.
Note that the present technology can also be configured as
described below.
(1) A mobile telecommunications system anchor base station for a
mobile telecommunications system including at least one anchor cell
and at least one slave cell being associated with the anchor cell,
the anchor base station comprising circuitry being configured to:
to activate or deactivate the slave cell, based on a service
requirement received from at least one user equipment. (2) The
mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of (1),
wherein the service requirement is received from a group of user
equipments. (3) The mobile telecommunications system anchor base
station of (1) or (2), wherein the service requirement includes
application level information. (4) The mobile telecommunications
system anchor base station of anyone of (1) to (3), wherein the
circuitry is further configured to send a one-shot activation
command. (5) The mobile telecommunications system anchor base
station of (4), wherein the circuitry is configured to send the
one-shot activation command to the slave cell or a group of user
equipments. (6) The mobile telecommunications system anchor base
station of anyone of (1) to (5), wherein the circuitry is further
configured to activate or deactivate an extant carrier. (7) The
mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of (6),
wherein the extant carrier is activated or deactivated for a single
user equipment or a group of user equipments in the slave cell. (8)
The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of anyone
of (6) to (7), wherein the extant carrier includes a sporadic
carrier. (9) The mobile telecommunications system anchor base
station of anyone of (6) to (8), wherein the extant carrier
includes a carrier segment. (10) The mobile telecommunications
system anchor base station of anyone of (1) to (9), wherein the
circuitry is further configured to select a coordinated set based
on at least one of: link quality, matched service requirement,
service provider, resources availability and interference level.
(11) The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station of
anyone of (1) to (10), wherein the circuitry is further configured
to perform handover on the basis of a relayed handover message
being transmitted to the slave cell and being relayed by the slave
cell. (12) The mobile telecommunications system anchor base station
of anyone of (1) to (11), wherein the slave cell is a virtual cell.
(13) A slave cell being established by a slave base station and
being connected to an anchor base station in a mobile
telecommunications system, the mobile telecommunications system
comprising the anchor base station, the anchor base station being
configured to communicate with at least one user equipment and at
least one further slave cell, the at least one further slave cell
being configured to communicate with at least one user equipment
and the anchor base station, the slave cell comprising circuitry
being configured to: to activate or deactivate an extant carrier,
based on a service requirement. (14) The slave cell of (13),
wherein the service requirement includes application level
information. (15) The slave cell of (13) or (14), wherein the
extant carrier is activated or deactivated for a single user
equipment or for a group of user equipments. (16) The slave cell of
anyone of (13) to (15), wherein the extant carrier includes a
sporadic carrier. (17) The slave cell of anyone of (13) to (16),
wherein the extant carrier includes a carrier segment. (18) The
slave cell of (17), wherein the activated carrier segment is
located within a primary-carrier. (19) The slave cell of (17) or
(18), wherein the activated carrier segment is associated with a
primary carrier. (20) The slave cell of anyone of (13) to (19),
wherein circuitry is further configured to send a reference signal
on activated resource blocks to a specific user equipment or a
group of user equipments. (21) The slave cell of (20), wherein the
circuitry is further configured to send the reference signal with a
pre-defined periodicity. (22) The slave cell of anyone of (13) to
(21), wherein the circuitry is further configured to send a
measurement configuration on activated resource blocks to a
specific user equipment or a group of user equipments. (23) The
slave cell of anyone of (13) to (22), wherein activated resource
blocks are at least one of associated with a primary carrier,
associated with an extant carrier, and located within a primary
carrier. (24) The slave cell of anyone of (13) to (23), wherein the
circuitry is further configured to perform a control plane
handover. (25) The slave cell of anyone of (13) to (24), wherein
the circuitry is further configured to relay a relay handover
message received from the anchor base station. (26) The slave cell
of anyone of (13) to (25), wherein the circuitry is further
configured to select another slave cell for handover on the basis
of a measurement report received from a user equipment. (27) A user
equipment being connectable to at least one anchor base station and
at least one slave cell of a mobile telecommunications system, the
mobile telecommunications system comprising the anchor base station
being configured to communicate with at least one user equipment
and at least one slave cell, the at least one slave cell being
established by a slave base station and being configured to
communicate with at least one user equipment and the anchor base
station, the user equipment comprising a circuitry being configured
to: receive a carrier segment activation command or deactivation
command. (28) The user equipment of (27), wherein the carrier
segment activation command or the carrier segment deactivation
command is received from the slave cell or the anchor base station.
(29) The user equipment of (27) or (28), wherein the circuitry is
further configured to measure and report a channel quality only on
activated resource blocks. (30) The user equipment of anyone of
(27) to (29), wherein the circuity is further configured to receive
a user equipment group specific reference signal only on activated
resource blocks.
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